The presence and purposes of God

The 18th-century philosophers called, uh, the heavenly city of the 18th-century philosophers made makes this statement. It’s a very typical statement. I want you to listen to it, and I want you to see if you agree. He said, and I quote, “What is man that the electron should be mindful of him? Man is just a foundling in the cosmos, abandoned by the forces that created him—unparented, unassisted, and undirected by omniscient forces or benevolent authority.” He must fend for himself and with the aid of his own limited intelligence, find his way in an indifferent universe. End of quote. Do you believe that? Lots of people do. Lots of people believe that’s a real understanding of the way the world is. We’re going to come to a different hypothesis this morning, and maybe we should review the word hypothesis for just a moment.

Hypothesis, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is a comprehensive, tentative explanation of certain phenomena which is meant to include all the facts of the same class, and which is assumed to be true until there’s been an opportunity to bring all the related facts into comparison. That’s a hypothesis.

You and I know the basics, even if you flunked biology or physics, you know that a hypothesis is kind of a set of assumptions that you make. And it’s a way you get to the rest of the facts by looking preliminarily at the facts and looking at them in a comprehensive way and then making a theory or a hypothesis of that and then continuing to test that hypothesis.

Now, I need you to listen. This isn’t a lecture in biology, but I need you to get the understanding that comes with that. Karl Becker has a hypothesis. Karl Becker’s hypothesis for life is that man is unassisted by any power in the universe and that the universe is basically unfriendly in reference to human lives.

That man is alone in the cosmos in his world. That’s a hypothesis. And I guarantee you, based on that hypothesis, he begins gathering facts that seem to support it. Now, whether he’s honest or not to acknowledge the facts that don’t support the hypothesis would be an interesting thing, and only Carl Becker could answer that.

We’re in a series of messages on the Psalms, not trying to give you a lot of, uh, expository understanding from the Psalms, although I hope we’ll do that. We’ll certainly be honest with the context of the Scripture. But what we’re trying to do is to see that the Psalms really are like a laboratory of life.

They’re like an inviting experience in which the psalmists are saying, “I invited God into every experience of my life—adultery, murder. I invited God into moments of high praise. I invited God into moments when my nation was being absolutely destroyed and running before its enemy. I invited God into every aspect of my life because I believed that God and His life would do something to bring guidance and understanding in reference to those circumstances.”

So my life was an experiment. Secondly, we said it’s not just the laboratory of life that the Psalms are all about, but it’s about transparent, vulnerable kinds of human relationships. There was a community there that allowed that to happen. A community in which David, for example, who was the king of Israel, could a few days after his adultery and murder experience and being exposed in that, write a psalm about it, send it to the choir director, and say, “Sing it next Sunday in the congregation, or actually Saturday as it probably was.”

Let’s be frank, friends. That kind of community is what we long for. I’m not going to be naive enough to suggest to you that the church is always that kind of an experience. It isn’t. But it is an experience these psalmists hold before us. But there’s a third thing. They not only say, “My life is an experiment,” and “I live in a transparent community where I can let people know the worst about me, and my brothers and sisters will walk with me in company to the house of God.”

But in addition to that, the psalmists are saying that a true approach to God is that way anyhow. God wants to hear your sorrows, and God wants to know if you’re angry at Him. And God isn’t going to be bruised and run away somehow if you tell Him the facts that you don’t feel like He’s present when you want Him to be present or you don’t understand what He’s doing right now in reference to wicked people and so forth.

You see, I don’t care how intelligent you are in terms of degrees or whatever; you are a scientist. And early in your life, you began collecting data. Do you remember the first time you put your hand in a socket—your finger in a socket—and you collected data that said if you put your finger, especially a sharp object, into the socket, you tend to get a shock?

Did you collect that data somewhere along the line? Did you collect the data that it’s dangerous to go across streets when you were a child, or that some dogs bite? And then you began making conclusions. Your conclusions went something like, “Mamas are soft, I don’t like spinach, cookies are better,” you know?

Now that kind of conclusion wasn’t as dangerous as the ultimate conclusions. As you began putting all this information together, you began making conclusions like this: “I’m not very smart. I’m not as pretty as my sister. I’m not as intelligent as my brother.” And you began accepting viewpoints about who you were, and then, of course, some of you have spent an entire life trying to prove those to be true.

You really aren’t smart, or you really are a klutz. And isn’t it interesting that once you reach that conclusion, you prove it all the time? I mean, you’re knocking things over, and every time there’s a glass on the table, you’re the one that knocks it over. It’s amazing how these kinds of hypotheses begin to be walked out in our life.

Now, we’re coming today to Psalm 1. I want you to take a Bible. If you don’t have your own, turn to one that’s given to you there. There are a few Bibles, New King James Versions. Psalm 1 isn’t hard to find, of course. There’s no title in this psalm, and that’s amazing because in the forty-one psalms that comprise the so-called first book of psalms—now they’re divided into books, five books.

And that’s not arbitrary. There really is a conclusion at the end of those five books, a double amen that sets them apart. And there are other structural reasons why these psalms, perhaps from the very beginning, were separated into five books—related to the five books of the Pentateuch, probably—the five opening books of the law.

But the first series has forty-one psalms in it. In thirty-eight of the forty-one, David is the author. But in this psalm, there’s no title, there’s no author, because really in some people’s minds, it’s not even a psalm; it’s a preface. It’s a compendium of all the psalms kind of worked together. It’s a summary of what the psalms are all about.

It’s a preface to this whole experience. Jerome, I think it was, who wrote—the great Catholic scholar who brought the Vulgate together, the Latin version of the Old and New Testaments, Old Testament first, and ultimately New Testament. Jerome wrote that this was—and these are his words—that Psalm 1 is the preface of the Holy Ghost.

The preface of the Holy Ghost. Maybe Solomon wrote it, maybe Hezekiah wrote it, perhaps even David wrote it. But I like Jerome’s words better. It’s the preface of the Holy Ghost. I want to change it just a bit. I’d like to suggest to you that more than just being a preface of the Holy Ghost, it’s a hypothesis of the Holy Ghost.

It’s a hypothesis of the Holy Spirit who is saying to us, this hypothesis, first of all, is proved in the struggling lives of these psalmists—ordinary men and women who had sin in their life and yet loved God, and who invited God to come into the midst of their experiences and glorified Him in this way.

But also, it’s an invitation to the Holy Spirit for us. Quit making your religion and your secular life little suitcases that you pull around with you. Come to understand that the believer’s life, the Christian life, is a life—not secular and spiritual. It is a life, and God is invited to demonstrate His faithfulness in all of that life.

So, let’s come to this hypothesis of the Holy Spirit, shall we? You have it there in front of you? If you do, it may be a little bit different, but I’d like you to read aloud with me, and I’d like you to stand as you do so. I’m sorry if you think this is being up and down too much, but so much for Pentecostal genuflexes or whatever you want to call them.

Let’s read them. The words will be somewhat different. Some of you have King James, New King James, whatever, but they’ll be close enough. Let’s read them aloud. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but they are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. But the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Well, that’s a pretty strong statement. Again, I will tell you, no sense apologizing for it. It’s a statement of the Holy Spirit that says, here’s a hypothesis. It’s truth, but you will see its truth in the person of your own experience.

You may be seated. You see, most of us in the secular world are influenced by Hegelian philosophy in this era. How many remember the famous triangle of Hegel? Let’s see if we can do it: thesis, antithesis, and what’s the bottom line of thesis and antithesis? Synthesis. You got an A+ this morning. In other words, if you put two opposites together, Karl Marx called the thesis action, he called the antithesis reaction, and he called the synthesis a revolutionary situation. That’s the basis of communist philosophy.

It’s the basis of all material philosophy. However, hear me out: God does not believe in that. God does not say thesis, antithesis, synthesis. God says thesis, antithesis, period. Opposites. There are the kingdoms of light and the kingdom of darkness. There is righteousness and there is evil. There are the godly and the ungodly.

There is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. There are two perceptions of reality: the spiritual and the totally materialistic. No synthesis between those. That’s nice and comfortable. It’s a kind of New Age thing. Let’s blend it all together in a blender and make it very palatable. A little bit of everything.

Use the same language. Just don’t mean the same things. With God, it’s thesis and antithesis. It’s opposites. I want to give you three important notes about…uh, when you had biology, did you have to have a notebook? Did you have to do your experiments and write the notes in it? How many of you ran out when the frog was going to be dissected on the day when he put the frog in front of you, and you suddenly felt like you were ill and wanted to be somewhere else?

Well, if you had a notebook, you need a notebook in this too, because I want to give you three simple explanations to begin with about this theory of the Holy Spirit, this hypothesis of God. First, I want you to notice that it’s a peculiar man. The Hebrew “hash” means that man, that man above a thousand. That particular man who is put to serve the purposes of God.

Oh, he may not be distinguished by being morally different, and that’s one reason Christians have made an awful record in this world. When we claim to be different in the sense of, “Oh, we’ve got our act together and we don’t eat, drink, swear, spit, chew, or go with those who do, and we’re somehow better than the rest of the world,” that has never been the Bible’s perspective. Never. But he’s different in the intention of his heart, which is to serve and know God. And that man is distinct. So, ladies, we’re not talking about just anybody when you read this psalm. It’s not all mankind in a universal brotherhood of man in the fatherhood of God. No, not on your life.

This is a very peculiar, specific man whose heart is after the things of God, who consciously brings God into his experience. Some folks, after last week—and I’m not surprised—whenever you talk about grace and you talk about God’s mercy in reference to non-conditional love, some people begin to say, “Isn’t that going to allow Christians to do what they want to do? Isn’t that a dangerous kind of message?” You know, you hear these little rumbles around. Yeah, it’s dangerous, all right, but the point is that the biblical concept isn’t just everybody doing what they want to do. It’s a person whose heart is intent on the purposes of God.

Secondly, something about this psalm you need to note, that’s very important as well, is that that man will have a marked difference in his life. Please circle the word “blessed.” It begins this psalm. The word doesn’t begin a psalm like this again until the thirty-second psalm. It’s plural in Hebrew. Ashrei, blessednesses, I guess you would interpret it. Oh, the copiousness of blessings, the blessedness of the man. Amen. It will be marked. In fact, there’ll be such a multiplicity of blessings in his life, he’s the guy who’s going to grab the gold ring. He wins the jackpot. And there’s an invitation with a promise in this passage, just exactly as there was in reference to Jesus’ words in the so-called Beatitudes: “Happy is the man, blessed is the man, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled.” So keep that note in mind.

And a third note, real quickly, is that the Holy Spirit, in this hypothesis, wants to give you some comparisons and variables.

I’ll tell you something, sir. One of the reasons people love to come up with theories is that they’re not faced with reality. For example, I am amazed at how many Americans are so excited about reincarnation today. They think this is a wonderful new concept. Hey, buddy, buy a round-trip ticket, better yet, buy a one-way ticket to India.

Understand the end of the doctrine you’re so excited about that not only produces poverty but keeps people in destitution, because that’s exactly the way it’s supposed to be. They’re supposed to live that way. Why care for a person who’s dying? Why care for a person who’s sick? It’s a part of the whole process of fulfilling their life experience.

You know, it’s amazing to be titillated around doctrinal ideas until you understand the full breadth of what they hold. The contrast is very obvious. The Holy Spirit wants you to see black and white in reference to two different total dark and light situations, and the Holy Spirit wants you to see that.

I loved Claire Bluth Luce when she was alive. You know, I think she must have been the only woman Senator in the era when I grew up, at least, during her time as a United States Senator. I don’t remember if there was ever another woman Senator. Now there are several, of course. She was a marvelous writer. One of my favorite quotes from her came out of a magazine I read. She was quite an intellectual, incidentally, and she wrote a piece called “The Message of the Fourth of July.” This is what she said: “For a people, ask for a person.”

Believing is everything. All history bears witness that it’s the believers who win revolutions, found nations, conquer oceans, tame the wilderness, raise great cities, and establish great institutions. The doubters, the cynics, the unbelievers—they can scarcely shake the pebbles out of their shoes, much less move mountains.

I love that quote. Unbelievers, skeptics, cynics—spend time getting pebbles out of your own shoes. Believers build cities. I’ve come to love the writings of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Sometimes I feel there’s Russian blood in me somewhere. My family tells me it can’t be, but I’ve always loved Russian literature and Russian music.

I am such a lover of Russian music that I adore Katchaturian. And that is the bottom line, my friend. You can talk about Tchaikovsky until you’re blue in the face, but Katchaturian is where you draw the line between people who love Russian music. I remember reading about him before Alexander Solzhenitsyn became well-known.

He was in prison, and most of his books were only secretly published. I had read a couple of his earlier works, and someone gave me a copy of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” Now, I appreciate deep Russian music and literature, but I got about one chapter into “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,” and I couldn’t understand what he was talking about, so I laid it aside.

Later on, someone made a film adaptation, and I was overwhelmed by the message. Someone had taken the time to decipher what Solzhenitsyn was saying. Because “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” aimed to show that amidst the Siberian coldness and the horrors of the prison concentration camps, there was a man, Ivan Denisovich, who knew Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. The light and brightness of the gospel of Christ shone through that man in those concentration camps, making a difference even in the midst of coldness, frigidity, lack of freedom, and the horrors of the camp. By the way, Solzhenitsyn himself, now that he’s out and has had some truly phenomenal things to say—very critical of our society, incidentally—there was a recent publication of Solzhenitsyn’s own religious writings. One of the poems goes like this, and I want to share it with you.

I don’t usually quote much poetry, but the background to this psalm is very crucial. We could go to the psalm, and I could quickly explain its meaning. But if it hasn’t personally applied to you, then we’ve missed the series, we’ve missed the purpose. Solzhenitsyn writes, and I quote, “How easy it is for me to live with you, Lord! How easy for me to believe in you when my spirit is lost, perplexed, and cast down; when even the sharpest minds can see no further than the night, and they don’t know what they must do tomorrow. You give me a sure certainty that you exist, that you are watching over me, and that you will not close the paths of righteousness to me.”

“On the summit of earthly glory, I look back astonished at the road that led through depths of despair to the point from which I can reflect your radiance to others. All that I can reflect, you shall grant me, and where I fail, you shall grant to others.” These opening lines have become very much a part of my own thinking.

“How easy it is for me to live with you, O Lord.” There’s a hypothesis that works, but it takes a believer. In fact, any scientist will tell you that you have to believe in a hypothesis to make it work. You’re honest enough to gather all the facts, but you take off on that line. You believe in that experience. God is encouraging you this morning to step into a hypothetical situation and try God’s grace. I want us to do three things quickly this morning. First, I want us to examine this man. Second, I want us to consider the alternatives. And third, I want you to receive the conclusion of this passage with me.

First, let’s examine him. Let’s examine that man – that special man above all others, with the purpose of God. He’s all too human as an individual, but he’s the guy who’s got the golden ring. Let’s talk about him for a moment. Let’s examine him. I want us to see his choice; I want us to see his character; I want us to see his condition quickly.

And, of course, it begins, when you talk about his choice, with a negative, doesn’t it? It begins with an X-ray, just like a photograph begins with an X-ray, and an X-ray is negative. I know some Christians who think that’s the whole photo. You know, I know some Christians who take you to their photo album, and all they have are negatives.

Isn’t that pretty? Just hold it up to the light and you can see Aunt Mary there. You see? Just get it and not enough light. It’s never become the opposite. They only see the negative. Well, that’s a tragic way, isn’t it? But the negative’s important. And particularly in this instance, because the negative is given to us in this picture.

Very emphatic, and please don’t just read over it callously or carelessly. Because it says, this man – this blessed man, upon whom copious blessings descend – is a man who’s chosen. He’s made a choice. First, not to take counsel from ungodly people. Secondly, not to in any way walk in the ways of the unrighteous.

And thirdly, not to sit with cynics and scoffers. You don’t have to be a great Bible scholar to see there’s a progression here. In the first progression, you’re talking about thoughts. And then in the second progression, you’re talking about lifestyle. And then in the third progression, you’re talking about the conclusion of a life.

That is setting in itself, giving evidence of a conclusion. I want to tell you something. You are going to be exactly what you are becoming. I can tell what you will be eventually. Because you will be; you shall be ultimately what you are becoming now. And your character is the harvest. Or rather, I should say it this way: your destiny is the harvest of your character.

You are going to be what you are becoming, and your destiny will be the harvest that comes out of your character. And further than that, I can tell you this: your character is a composite of your habits. And your habits are created by your thoughts. And your thoughts are given rise out of what’s inside your spirit.

Do you remember the time when the disciples were walking through a grain field? These outdoor men got hungry and got the grain and blew away the chaff, and they ate it. And the Pharisees were standing there. Look at Jesus, your disciples ate without washing their hands. Nasty, nasty. And like a lot of Christians who hear the world’s skeptical, cynical approach, the disciples immediately said, “Oh no, what have we done?”

And I like Philip’s translation at this point. Philip says, Jesus turned to the disciples and said, “Are you as stupid as they are? Don’t you know that nothing that goes into the body makes a man common or unclean? Because it passes through the body. But what makes a man common or unclean is what comes from within him.”

And then Jesus said in Mark 7, “Out of the heart comes evil thoughts.” And then He names not a thought, but the progression of a thought. Out of the heart comes evil thoughts, adultery, murder, violence. All these, He said, come from within and make a man common or unclean.

Interesting, isn’t it? You take the world’s ethical ideas. You take their counsel. It’s okay to end life. Man is material anyway. What’s really important is this and that. Get all you can, can all you get. You take the counsel of the world. And the next thing you know, you’ve accepted their lifestyle. And you’re walking with them, and then ultimately you’re sitting in the seat of a scornful, just as the people who tripped you into that thing to begin with.

It is a progressive way. And in our day, there’s a secular worldview that absolutely devastates most Christians. Not necessarily because they believe it. Not necessarily because they are in conflict with it, but because they take their secular life here, and their spiritual life here, and they live their secular life according to this statement, and their spiritual life according to that statement, and you cannot do it.

It will destroy you. What is this man’s choice positively? What’s the other side of that negative? He doesn’t take the counsel of the world. He doesn’t accept the lifestyle defined by a materialistic society, but he finds delight in meditating on the law of God. And he meditates upon the law of God day and night.

Two things I want to say about this passage: one about this word. One is contained in the word “delight.” The second is contained in the understanding of the word “law.” I’m not a Hebrew scholar, but I understand that the word here is very clear, not meaning Torah or Pentateuch. In fact, we are told that probably the writer here is using this to open up the acceptance of the Psalms to the Jewish people.

To say to them, the delight of the man of God is not just Torah; it’s, and this is probably the better understanding of the word I’m told, any revelation that comes from God. He delights in it. Listen, friend, you don’t have to be a psychologist when you stand up on this platform and attempt to teach the Word of God to know the difference between people who are here for some social reason and people who delight.

I want to know what God is saying. People who are indeed saying, “What does the Lord say?” I delight in revelation. I want to know what God says, and then I will meditate upon that day and night. And, of course, meditation in the Christian world is different from the world. You see, the worldly concept of meditation is to turn your mind off.

The Christian concept of meditation is to recall the goodness of God, to continually bring to mind what the Lord has done. It’s the exact opposite. The Hebrew word I understand here relates very closely to the Hebrew word that means to recount, to recall specifically what God has done. But notice, that’s why I called the bulletin the sermon message, “Strange Delight.”

This man not only chooses not to accept a worldly philosophy, its lifestyle, or its definition, but this man chooses to care about revelation.

We have a school here called Acts on Saturday night, and I was speaking to my class last evening. We’re teaching Christian maturity in that Acts class on Saturday evening, and I was saying, because one of the students had brought up the fact, “Well, we need to be provoked to learn. We need to be provoked to learn.”

And I said, “Do you understand how many opportunities are given in a week in this church for people to learn? Do you understand the number of chances people are confronted with to receive teaching, to be confronted spiritually? The question is not with the opportunity, the question is with the response. With a desire, with a delight, with a care.”

That the things of the Word become a part of our experience. And of course, all these positive discernments and choices of this man make him a man of special acknowledgment. Now quickly, not only do we note what his choices are, negatively and positively, but note what his character is. He is a tree planted.

By rivers of water, the actual Hebrew doesn’t say “rivers”; it says a division of waters, and it means irrigation, basically what you and I call irrigation, where channels of water are brought in, and you’ve seen, any of you who have seen orchards in the valley here, know how they channel the water into the tree roots.

This tree is, but notice, he is a planted tree.

Some of us live in such a way that no one would have an occasion to understand whether we’re fruitful or not. And of course, one isn’t fruitful who isn’t planted anyway. Do you remember the little poster we had some years ago? “Grow where you are planted.” Pretty good truth. Pretty good truth. Planted. And he’s not only planted, but notice, he brings forth fruit.

In his season, there’s not a believer who knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. There’s not a Christian who follows the precepts of God who does not go through dry moments. Who doesn’t go through moments when everyone else seems to be blooming and they are not. The analogy here would be if you had a group of fruit trees or a group of trees together.

How silly for them to compare themselves one with another. Well, he’s bearing; why am I not bearing? When indeed, each tree, each fruit is related to a specific season. But the issue is, that tree, that man who cares about revelation, and who stays put, and who chooses not to buy into negative cynical resolutions, THAT MAN!

In his season, when it’s imperative, when it’s his time to shine, as Don led the chorus this morning, he bears his fruit in that season. Because that’s his character. And his condition is that everything he does is going to prosper. Whatsoever he does will prosper. The Hebrews never had a problem with that word.

We have a problem with it. Prosperity, to us, means dollars and cents and bank accounts. The Hebrews understood prosperity and the depths of a man’s character. For example, they saw it as very indicative of prosperity that a man had many children. Today, it’s considered an insult. If you have a lot of children, you’re not very bright.

And if you have too many children, somebody’s going to walk in and give you some, and they’re going to ask you questions. Have you had the right instruction? Have you had the right sex education? Do you know there are ways to avoid this? Or, we make sly little comments about them. I wonder if somebody’s talked to him or her about how this happens.

The Hebrews felt that the highest kind of recognition of prosperity was the number of children. And I know, I know what we buy into. We buy into a thing of, Oh, well, there are so many people in the world. God knows we don’t need any more people. Just multiply yourself, as though that somehow is an answer.

That’s a world philosophy; it’s not a biblical philosophy.

Because godly children raised in godly circumstances, given godly understanding, become a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.

So, prosperity among the Hebrews is a much deeper thing than dollars and cents. Even some of you here this morning may not particularly be strongly committed to this hypothesis of the Holy Spirit. You know as well as I do that dollars don’t produce happiness, and the illustrations are all around us in our life and experience.

So, here is this man, his choices, his character, his condition. But now quickly see that the man whom we’ve seen in this passage, that man we’ve examined, is compared with an opposite—the ungodly, the sinner, the wicked—who, like chaff, the scripture says, are driven away by the wind. Not only do they have no future in the judgment, they really have no present in terms of that which matters.

Now, I’m going to be the first to tell you that the psalmists themselves have some problems with this hypothesis. There must be a dozen places in the Psalms, certainly a dozen that I could name, where the psalmist says, “Why do the wicked prosper? And why are godly people tested?” So, this hypothesis is often questioned by religious people because circumstantially, you can look around you and say, “I’m not sure this works. I’m not sure everything godly people do prospers. And I’m certainly not sure that all the wicked people like chaff are being driven away.”

And of course, the question becomes, when’s payday? It isn’t always Friday, friend. And the understanding of what the Spirit of God speaks in this passage is not limited to a momentary, isolated kind of perspective that weighs somebody by the size of their house and the number of bathrooms they have. They will not stand in the judgment, and the passage says they do not stand in the congregation of the righteous.

What does that phrase mean to you, by the way? Did you see that phrase? We read it. What does it mean to you? I’m going to tell you what I believe it means, and I’ve searched this through. I believe it means… It’s a benefit to be with God’s people.

Now, that in itself is questionable as a hypothesis for some of you. I’ve heard some of you say, I’ve said it myself. “The one thing about being a Christian I don’t like is other Christians.” Anyone ever said that, you know? “I like animals, the more I like people, the more I see people, the more I like animals.”

All those kinds of comments, we’ve all made them, time and time again. This passage says one of the disadvantages of being unrighteous is you’re excommunicated from the vitality of true life in the church of Jesus Christ. You don’t have a standing with people who know how to pray. I was called to pray for a man about three years ago. I’ll never forget this because he’s a man that I knew only because of my connections with a secular club in the city.

Years ago, I haven’t been in that particular club for a number of years, and yet because this man had been a club member and knew me during that era of my involvement with that particular group, he had called. I remember going to him, and his opening words to me were, “Uh, they used to call me Padre at this club.”

He said, “Hello, Padre. I haven’t seen you for a while.” And I said, “Yeah.” I called him by his name. He’s a very prominent businessman in this town. I said, “How are things doing?” And then I said, “That’s a stupid question. I’m sorry I asked. Obviously, you’re in the hospital. You’re not doing well.” And he said, “That’s right.”

He said, “Padre, do you know why I called you?” And I said, “No.” He said, and then tears came into his eyes. He said, “I don’t know anybody who knows how to pray. I don’t know anybody who knows how to pray.” So here, specifically, in many instances of our life, is the understanding that being a part of the company of the righteous is a very specific blessing to people, and some of you understand that.

Then, lastly, there’s a conclusion reached in this passage. Let me read it for you. Read it yourself. “The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Now, to some people, this is just repetition. God has already said it. The wicked, like chaff, are being driven away. The righteous are going to prosper.

This kind of hypothesis from the Holy Spirit states that the righteous man, the man God can work with, makes certain choices. He’s not going to buy into the wrong system. He’s not going to live the wrong lifestyle. He’s going to choose to delight in revelation. That man is a man God can bless. The wicked are like chaff.

They’re going to be blown away and so forth. And people think this sixth verse is just a summary of that. Now, I want you to listen again. “The Lord knows the way of the righteous.” Please, just follow me for this moment. That is the Hebrew word, “Yadah,” or “Yadah.” It means intimate knowledge. It is, in fact, the word that’s used when talking about a sexual experience.

Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore a son. That’s “Yadah.”

What this passage suggests is not that God knows, God foresees what’s going on in your experience. What this passage says is that God is in a relationship with the righteous. He is knowing you. In fact, the Hebrew verb used here is in the continuing present sense. God is continuing to know those who are righteous.

But the wicked and the ungodly, the translation here says “perish,” the actual word says they will wander off. That’s exactly what it says, like sheep. The ungodly will just wander away. Why? They have no eternal involvement. One of the things that Jesus said in the New Testament that’s so important is that God knows His sheep by name.

God knows them by name. And the reverse of that is that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd.

So there is intimacy here. It’s not, “O thou almighty, omniscient God.” There is an intimate knowledge of Him. And the hypothesis of this passage, the great strength of this hypothesis, is not so much that if you make these choices, God will do this. You refuse evil counsel and God will prosper you. You don’t sit in the seat of the scornful and God will ensure that everything you do prospers.

No, that isn’t really the long run of this passage. The real essence of this passage is that the man who chooses to delight in God’s purpose in revelation is a man whom God will know. And God walks with him in his discouragement, in his disappointment, in his sinfulness, in his failures, in his successes, in the totality of his experience.

The ways of the righteous, God is continually walking through the process of their experience. I think my all-time favorite, next to “Fiddler on the Roof” (I already told you last week “Fiddler on the Roof” is number one for me), is the film and the musical that was based on Cervantes’ novel, “The Man from La Mancha.”

In “The Man from La Mancha,” there is an old, senile man who begins to believe that he’s a great knight. He has a slightly overweight servant on his farm, Pancho Sancho, who he starts to see as the great squire to the knight. And he has a broken-down old horse whose ribs show, but he sees it as the gallant steed.

And in rusty old armor, he rides off on this broken-down steed with this portly little, um, squire, as he calls them. They arrive at a place where pig, uh, hog sellers gather – a tavern, a saloon, dirty and unkempt. Here, they pause to drink their beer and rest their pigs en route to the market. Yet, he envisions it as a fortress.

Kneeling before the innkeeper, he beseeches the innkeeper to knight him. The tale takes on a comedic turn at this point. Picture this soiled innkeeper wearing an apron and a pitiable serving girl. While she attends to these men, participating in the unsavory aspects of her role, Don Quixote perceives her not as a debased and mistreated woman, but as the beautiful and pure Dulcinea.

Dulcinea. Upon calling her by this name, she retorts, “You don’t understand,” and attempts to convey the abuses and indecencies that have marred her life. You’re familiar with how the story concludes. The elderly man regains his senses, falls ill, and ultimately passes away in his bed. He no longer views himself as a grand knight, and the same goes for Sancho Panza, his squire.

He has returned to his right mind, you see. However, those he encountered come to his bedside one by one. They share how his words transformed their lives, enabling them to perceive beyond their current reality. Friend, comprehend this: my motivation stems from recognizing the might of spoken words.

Ah, I apprehend the occurrences on Sunday mornings around this time in most of our lives. I’m no novice. I’ve occupied this pulpit for 19 years, preaching for 30. I grasp where the majority’s minds drift at a quarter to 12 and beyond. Nevertheless, I also comprehend that through the truth of the Holy Spirit, within a contaminated and tainted world we traverse, a world preaching that individuals hold little significance while material possessions matter; strive to amass all you can and do whatever is necessary to outdo others and secure your own welfare.

None but you will tend to your needs. All this nonsense. God communicates to us.

God imparts, “No, fathom this: substantial blessings cascade upon individuals who set their hearts on pursuing the revelations of My truth. Those who opt not to succumb to this system’s allure, who decidedly refuse its lifestyle and its cynical intellectuality.

These blessings don’t solely pertain to the conventional disparity between blessings upon righteousness versus unrighteousness. Rather, they concern the fact that throughout this process, said individuals will be acknowledged by Me. Their righteousness, their understanding, they will bask in an intimacy that bestows freedom. This message resounds.

Amidst blindness and obscurity, amid all the distractions that engulf others, a word penetrates. And even if the preacher sometimes departs the pulpit with the sentiment, “What’s the point? Why not just air reruns of ‘Bonanza’ on Sunday mornings?”

Occasionally, an awareness dawns that the word elicits transformation. Indeed, it brings about change.

Naturally, it’s within your purview to substantiate any hypotheses. You live according to the hypotheses you elect to uphold. You amass evidence. Perhaps we can convene at the conclusion. Maybe you’ll check in with me, as we’re all moving toward a finale. The ungodly culminate in aimless wandering.

In contrast, the righteous evolve to know Him more deeply. They grow closer to Him. Let’s join in prayer. Father, amidst the delight of Your presence, and perhaps this constitutes the foremost belief we must internalize – that knowing You is profoundly rewarding, genuinely worth the effort.

Amidst the enigma of Your essence and nature, lie innumerable joys – countless and beyond our grasp, exceeding our expectations. Thank You, Father, for rousing our innermost beings through Your word, for effecting change within us. And sometimes, despite our initial reservations, You kindle change through hope.

This morning, I express special gratitude that You assure us, Lord, that You recognize the righteous. You are in communion with them. Throughout this journey, their lives are distinguishably different – a tangible testament to Your grace. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Heads bowed this morning, just before we stand, join hands, and bid farewell for this morning’s service.

I wonder how many are here this morning who say (and this is a very general thing, and I’m not saying it because I need some kind of demonstration). I’m saying this out of my heart. Who say, in your spirit this morning, “I have come too much to buy into what the world says. Maybe I’ve not changed my lifestyle yet, but I’ve already begun to see the thought processes beginning to become habits, and the habits beginning to produce character change in me, and I’m not happy with that.” And through the revelation of God’s Word, I wish to be in intimacy with Him, not with the world. And I need prayer in my life and change in my life this morning. Would you just raise your hand anywhere in this building?

Let me pray for you. There. God bless you. Sister, brother, back here. God bless you. Sir, over here. Thank you. This one here in the center. Thank you. That one there. God bless you. And over here. Thank you. Anyone else? I’ll just wait a moment. It’s such a personal understanding that comes to us. It isn’t because we agree particularly with what a man is saying.

It’s that the Holy Spirit makes that clear. That compromise begins and it produces death. We wander away. We do through that process. God would turn us into that sense of His righteousness, His revelation, His truth. Amen. Praise the Lord. I really do feel this morning; I’m not going to embarrass anyone here, but I’d like you who raised your hand to just stand where you are, please.

Just stand a moment. Right there at the seat. Thank you. God bless you.

You know, it is not—it certainly isn’t enough just to, uh, just to say this is the way it is. We want it to be different. And while you’re standing there, I’d just like to have a friend here, a believing friend, to stand with you. Would, uh, some of you who are in our prayer guild or some of you who are leaders in the church and who know how to pray, women and men, would you just stand beside one of these people?

Just stand up where you are as well and go to them. I’d like a man with a man, a woman with a woman. Standing right where they are. Thank you.

No one else needs to move around for just a moment. This isn’t going to take long. We just want to pray with these dear friends and establish in the name of the Lord that, by His grace, He wishes to free us, establish us, unite with us, His purpose before the Lord. Father, we have no idea where our friends today are in terms of their lives.

We know that we are all facing the potential every day, bombarded as we are with choosing to go a different way. But we thank you that Your Spirit loves us enough that this morning you would speak to us like you have, and that’s great. We love you for it, Lord. We care about your revelation. We delight in your law.

And I pray that these dear friends will follow through on that stirring work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name. Amen. Would you all stand with us now, please? And would you just take hands across where you are and let’s just, in this process of dismissal, nail something deeply into our own spirit through the process of God.

Just take the hand of the person beside you and we’ll have just one kind of chain here together. I would encourage those of you who prayed with friends who were standing, please make sure at the end of the service that they’ve finished that prayer, and if they’re not (which well may not be), that you’d be willing to pray with them right there in the pew or in the prayer room or somewhere.

You do that. You follow through on that. I want you to say with me these words, will you please? “I delight in the law of the Lord.

I choose to delight in His revelation.

I desire above everything to know Him.

And I want Him to know me.” That’s the secret of what God would have us walk in. Let’s pray. Father, as we close this wonderful time we’ve had today, even now in the close, reminded of our 40 some friends and drivers and so forth on the bus, thinking of their ministry which will begin later tonight, all these hours of travel they have to face.

And thinking of ourselves, Lord, together, corporately, as we are the church. We ask you this week to begin demonstrating in our lives and showing us how we are making choices. And help us to understand the character that flows from choices which exalt you and your revelation. Bless my friends, Lord. Give them a great time before you this afternoon.

As we assemble again tonight in a time of praise and worship, may our hearts be so freed that there will be a renewed sense of understanding your grace upon us. May your benediction and countenance be upon these dear friends, we ask in Jesus’ name. And everyone said, “God bless you. You’re dismissed. Share the love of Christ with someone beside you. Amen.”